MIDI Elements Teensy Library

I have created a wrapper library to make programming MIDI controllers on the Teensy board dead easy and super fast. Simply instantiate object for each component like Buttons, Potentiometer, LED, rotary encoders, etc. and let the library handle all the dirty work of reading the raw values and deciding when to send MIDI signals. Enabling you to experiment and concentrate on your creative ideas and not waste too much time with the repetitive technical details and debugging code.

Just in a couple lines of code you can program a fully functioning MIDI controller.
Here’s an example of how simple things are:

Currently only Buttons, Potentiometers and LEDs are supported. But I’m planning on adding RGB LED, rotary encoder, LED bars and ring and button pad classes.
Each component sends two sets of MIDI signals if enabled. For example Buttons send NoteOn, NoteOff, as well as ControlChange values so that they could be easily mapped in Toggle or Instant mode in software like Ableton Live. Also the Potentiometers send secondary NoteOns when values reach 0 or 127, à la MIDI Fighter Pro.

Button(byte pin, byte channel, byte number);
Creates a button object on specified channel and MIDI number
pin – pin number on Teensy
channel – midi channel on which messages will be sent
number – midi value on which messages will be sent

Button(byte pin, byte channel, byte number, bool secondary);
Creates a button object on specified channel and MIDI number
pin – pin number on Teensy
channel – midi channel on which messages will be sent
number – midi value on which messages will be sent
secondary – send secondary midi signals

Button(byte pin, byte channel, byte number, bool secondary, bool debugging);
Creates a button object on specified channel and MIDI number
pin – pin number on Teensy
channel – midi channel on which messages will be sent
number – midi value on which messages will be sent
secondary – send secondary midi signals
debugging – print messages to serial port instead of midi

Functionsread();
Reads the button state and sends a midi note on if the button was pressed and note off if the button was unpressed on the channel and midi number specified in the constructor

readValue(bool &stateChanged);
Reads the button state, and sets the stateChanged if the state changed from the last time checked, also returns true if the button is pressed and false if not pressed. No MIDI signals are sent.
stateChanged – is set to true after the function exits if the button state changed state

Potentiometer(byte pin, byte channel, byte number);
Creates a potentiometer object on specified channel and MIDI CC number
pin – pin number on Teensy
channel – midi channel on which messages will be sent
number – midi value on which messages will be sent

Potentiometer(byte pin, byte channel, byte number, bool secondary);
Creates a potentiometer object on specified channel and MIDI number
pin – pin number on Teensy
channel – midi channel on which messages will be sent
number – midi value on which messages will be sent
secondary – send secondary midi signals

Potentiometer(byte pin, byte channel, byte number, bool secondary, bool debugging);
Creates a potentiometer object on specified channel and MIDI number
pin – pin number on Teensy
channel – midi channel on which messages will be sent
number – midi value on which messages will be sent
secondary – send secondary midi signals
debugging – print messages to serial port instead of midi

Functionsread();
Reads the potentiometer value and sends a control changed if the value changed on the channel and midi number specified in the constructor

readValue(bool &stateChanged);
Reads the potentiometer value, and sets the stateChanged if the state changed from the last time checked, also returns the value of the potentiometer. No MIDI signals are sent.
stateChanged – is set to true after the function exits if the button state changed state

Led:Constructors

Led(byte pin);
Creates a Led object with default channel 0, MIDI number 0 and debugging enabled
pin – pin number on Teensy

Led(byte pin, byte channel, byte number);
Creates a Led object on specified channel and MIDI CC number
pin – pin number on Teensy
channel – midi channel on which led will be triggered
number – midi value on which led will be triggered

Ledr(byte pin, byte channel, byte number, bool pwm);
Creates a Led object on specified channel and MIDI number
pin – pin number on Teensy
channel – midi channel on which led will be triggered
number – midi value on which led will be triggered
pwm – enable pulse width modulation

FunctionssetOn(byte channel, byte number, byte velocity);
Call from within Note On or Control Change event handler and pass on the parameters. And the LED will turn on if the messages received correspond to those specified in the constructor.
channel – midi channel of the received message
number – midi number or control change of the received message
velocity – midi velocity or control change value of the received message

setOff(byte channel, byte number, byte velocity);
Call from within Note Off event handler and pass on the parameters. And the LED will turn off if the messages received correspond to those specified in the constructor.
channel – midi channel of the received message
number – midi number or control change of the received message
velocity – midi velocity or control change value of the received message

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17 comments for “MIDI Elements Teensy Library”

j

April 2, 2013 at 6:36 pm

WOW! this looks awesome!
I really thank you for sharing this library.
I’m planning on making my own kind of “spectra midi fighter pro” which includes faders, knobs, arcade buttons and RGB leds, so it’d be great if you updated the library with support for RGB leds.

Tomas, this is godsend for me. Ive recently been moving forward to create the midi controller of my dreams but have been stuck at coding. Great thanks for the code. One request, can you add accelerometer blocks? Or/and gyrometers?

Nice! This is an excellent library and help for my own endeavors. Thank you so much, can’t wait for those updates too! By LED bars and rings you mean something like this? ( http://compare.ebay.com/like/271202265082?var=lv&ltyp=AllFixedPriceItemTypes&var=sbar ) I’ve been wanting to incorporate this into my own Midi controller for a while now. Any idea how to get the knob value from Ableton Live back to the Midi Controller? Some kind of MidiRead function? Thanks again Tomash!

Hey Tomash, awesome work! I got myself a teensy years ago but gave up after I couldn’t figure how to make it generate proper midi. Now I moved to livid brain jr. but I hate the lack of customization.
Is there any chance of adding FSR sensors to your library?

hi there. i have a problem on teensy 3.0 with your code using a 10k pot …. the signal is very noisy at a range of 100 from 127 … ans at this value is sending continuous control change to PC. i am using traktor pro 2. can you help me please ?

I am having trouble getting the LED to light up. I set up the midiElements_basic_example sketch with my Teensy2++. the Midi notes and cc are playing fine from the button and pot – but the LED does not light up on pin 6. What am I missing?